Where Were They 100 Years Ago? part 3

Where Were They 100 Years Ago?

This week Randy Seaver's SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN  challenge is: Where were they 100 Years Ago? 

1)  Determine where your ancestral families were on 18 May 1919 – 100 years ago.

2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?

I have accounted for seven of my maternal ancestors in 1919.  I had miscounted in my last post.  So to clarify, my Great-great grandmother Margaret Schmidt Bovenschen, her son William and his wife Sena (Heitman) Bovenschen and their daughter Helen were in one household.  The my great grandfather Fredrick Moehlmann, his ex-wife Mathilda Tendick and their son Alfred Moehlmann were also living in 1919. That is a total of seven.   In 1919 there were four ancestors in my father's line that were living in Indiana.

My great grandmother Mary Elizabeth (Adkins) Sargent  in June of 1918 was living in Linton, Greene, Indiana according to her son Hobart's WWI registration. Hobert was married in January of 1919 in Vanderburg County and living in Evansville, Indiana. In the 1920 census Mary is living with her son and daughter-in-law in Evansville.  So it not certain at what point she joined them, but I think she was probably at 1124 S. 8th Sreet in Evansville.  That home no longer exists.

Martha Emmaline (Davis) Houchin (1854-19440), my great grandmother, married her second husband on May 29, 1919 in Pike County, Indiana. Since the death of her first husband in 1911 until her second marriage she lived in this house in Glezan, Pike, Indiana.

Adding my two paternal great grandmothers brings the total to nine ancestors living in 1919.  The next post will include the final two ancestors.

Where Were They 100 Years Ago? part 2

Where Were They 100 Years Ago?

This week Randy Seaver's SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN  challenge is: Where were they 100 Years Ago? 

1)  Determine where your ancestral families were on 18 May 1919 – 100 years ago.

2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?

My last post had my Bovenschen ancestors and this post will my Grandfather Moehlmann's side.  This line had three ancestors living in 1919.  My Great great grandfather, Frederick August Henry Moehlmann, 1868-1941, was living at 526 E Sanders Street in Indianapolis, Indiana according to the 1919 Indianapolis phone directory:

According the  1920 census, Fred is a boarder in the home of Henry and Elizabeth Hemmelgern and their three teenage sons.  As far as i know there is no relationship between the two families and Henry works in a saw mill while Fred works for the railroad.  In fact Fred had lived at three different addresses since the death of his father in 1911.  After his divorce in 1907 he had lived in the home of his parents.

Fred's ex-wife, Mathilda Tendick 1872- 1970, my great grandmother, was living in 1919 on the family farm in Greene County, Indiana.  In the household was her son Alfred (1894-1974) who had just been discharged from the Army in January and her brother Dedrick.  Mathilda's mother had just died in October 1918.  This is the only picture I have of the small wood frame house, taken in 1918.

So far I have accounted for six ancestors on my maternal side that were living in 1919. In the next post I will look at the ancestors on my paternal side.

Where Were They 100 Years Ago?

 

This week Randy Seaver's SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN  challenge is: Where were they 100 Years Ago? 

1)  Determine where your ancestral families were on 18 May 1919 – 100 years ago.

2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?


I always enjoy these challenges.  However, while I usually try to answer them, I haven't done it in a post.  I was surprised to find that I had 11 ancestors living in 1919 and all of them were in Indiana. 

On my maternal side, there were three generations, with four of my ancestors, living in this home farm of William Bovenschen in Greene County, Indiana.

My oldest ancestor living in 1919 was my Great-great grandmother Margaret (Schmidt) Bovenschen.  She was born in Germany in 1842 and immigrated about 1850 with her parents, settling in Greene County, Indiana.  She married Dedrick Bovenschen in 1862.  In 1911 Dedrick died and she moved in with her son William, my great grandfather (1866-1947). 

In the 1919 household were William, age 52 and his wife Gesena (Heitman), 52, and their children: Grace age 25, Helen age 23 - my grandmother, Tressa age 20, Bernice age 18, Ruth age 15 and Wayne age 11 and William's mother Margaret, age 77. Anna their oldest daughter had already married.

The Bovenschen farm was 272 acres with a large brick house.  These are the only pictures I have and they were taken at family events in 1920 and 1921. The house is no longer standing. In his later years William leased the land for coal mining and then after his death the family sold the land.